Brokerage/Securities Accounts

bradgator2 · Mar 8, 2019

How do you like the best?

For private stuff, I was on Scottrade that got bought by TDAmeritrade. One thing I HATE in life are fees. I dont want to be nickeled and dimed. TDAmeritrade has been pretty good, no fees so far except the $7 to buy a stock. Seems fairly ease to use, phone app is pretty good.

williston_gator · Mar 8, 2019

I started an account with Betterment a few weeks ago. I don't have the time to research stocks so a roboadvisor works best for me. I believe they use Vanguard ETFs/a mix of stocks and bonds based on your risk tolerance.

I'm down a few dollars but such is life of stocks. I don't have a ton in it but I'll keep feeding it little by little.

no1g8r · Mar 8, 2019

I like Interactive Brokers as I like to play around with stocks, ETFs, and options, and their prices are the best, as long as you do enough transactions to not have to pay monthly fees.

I also had an account with OptionsXpress, which is now Schwab, but their trading fees are higher.

FireFoley · Mar 8, 2019

no1g8r said:
I like Interactive Brokers as I like to play around with stocks, ETFs, and options, and their prices are the best, as long as you do enough transactions to not have to pay monthly fees.

I also had an account with OptionsXpress, which is now Schwab, but their trading fees are higher.

Agree on Interactive brokers. They have the best fees on the street for those who are not actively trading. Plus if you have a good amount of cash there and are flat postion wise, etc. they pay you 1.68% on your idle cash, which is more thean money markets at big banks, and not that far below internet bank deposit rates.

soflagator · Mar 8, 2019

Fire Foley and no1 are correct. From a practicality standpoint and cost standpoint, IB is the best.

Pablos Tunnel · Mar 9, 2019

williston_gator said:
I started an account with Betterment a few weeks ago. I don't have the time to research stocks so a roboadvisor works best for me. I believe they use Vanguard ETFs/a mix of stocks and bonds based on your risk tolerance.

I'm down a few dollars but such is life of stocks. I don't have a ton in it but I'll keep feeding it little by little.

Pay yourself first every month.

Gator By Marriage · Mar 9, 2019

Personally, if you don't have the time to really pay attention, as well as do your research, or have the ability - i am very self aware: I have neither, I think individual stocks are a bad way to go. For those of you who have the knowledge and skills, by all means go for it - and i sincerely wish you all the luck in the world. For the rest of us, vehicles like ETFs and mutual funds are probably the way to go. No, Mrs. G and I won't retire super wealthy, but we'll be able to retire in a few years and live at a standard better than the one we currently enjoy. And for us, that's enough.

78 · Mar 9, 2019

Gator By Marriage said:
Personally, if you don't have the time to really pay attention, as well as do your research, or have the ability - i am very self aware: I have neither, I think individual stocks are a bad way to go. For those of you who have the knowledge and skills, by all means go for it - and i sincerely wish you all the luck in the world. For the rest of us, vehicles like ETFs and mutual funds are probably the way to go. No, Mrs. G and I won't retire super wealthy, but we'll be able to retire in a few years and live at a standard better than the one we currently enjoy. And for us, that's enough.

Excellent post. Most investors, esp DIY, are going to be served best by the bucket approach.

1) What's my time horizon?
2) How mich risk am I comfortable with? (Investors aren't always truthful with themselves over this.)
3) You go from there.

Determine how much risk/non-risk by percentage and start filling the buckets. ETFs are great, a little more risk than mutual funds because they trade, but excellent ways to spread risk. Just make it a suitable mix for yourself.

GatorInGeorgia · Mar 12, 2019

I’ve heard good things about IB and plan on checking them out. Merrill Edge is pretty good. They used to have no trading fees on equities if you met certain criteria but they changed it to $7 I believe. If you open up a Bank of America checking account, though, I believe they’ll give you something like 20 free trades per month.

Keep an eye out for order execution issues at the various discount brokers. I have a second account with E-Trade and I’ve seen it happen in real time where my Merrill buy order gets filled at my limit order price and my same order on E-Trade misses by a few pennies. Then if I adjust the E-Trade purchase order price higher to equal what it’s trading at it misses again by a few pennies. I quickly realized I was being front run. You end up chasing a stock and end up paying more through a higher purchase price per share than you saved by getting “free” trades. Some of these firms sell their order flow to high frequency trading firms and the retail investor gets stuck so just pay attention. Stay away from Robinhood...they do this very thing.

BMF · Mar 13, 2019

My personal brokerage is USAA and I'm happy with them.

My adviser account is at TD. I'm not sure what to think about them yet. I'm used to how USAA's dashboard looks, so I don't like TD's view.

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Brokerage/Securities Accounts

bradgator2

Rioting

williston_gator

Twitter junkie

no1g8r

Bringing Reason to the dumb masses

FireFoley

Senior Member

soflagator

Senior Member

Pablos Tunnel

Well-Known Member

Gator By Marriage

A convert to Gatorism

78

Dazed and Confused

GatorInGeorgia

Senior Member

BMF

Bad Mother....

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